There might never be a time in a women’s life when she’s more in tune with her cycle and body’s changes as when she is trying to conceive.

In our BabyCenter Community in our Getting Pregnant group, members have long tracked cycle length, cervical mucus and their temperatures. They’ve taken supplements and checked cervical position. But there is a new and interesting aide in the trying to conceive process members have discussed and it involves taking some pretty intimate pictures.

What are the pictures of, you ask? The cervix. Yes, that cervix.

It’s actually fascinating to read about cervical photography. It seems to have caught on through a website called Beautiful Cervix Project. The site’s creator posted pictures of her cervix throughout her monthly cycle.

And if you’re not squeamish, the pictures are incredible. They show huge changes in the cervix through a woman’s cycle. It does appear to give women one more piece of information when trying to determine ovulation.

I’m one of those people who loves collecting information. So if I had a long trying to conceive process, I can completely imagine myself delving into cervical photography. Of course I highly doubt I’d tell a soul about it. For the record though, no more kids for me so no interesting photos in my future.

My main question was, how on earth do you actually take a picture of your cervix? According to one of our members, it’s simple. Use your iPhone with the flash. Easy peasy.

What do you think about cervical photography? Do you think it’s fascinating? Would you try it if you were trying to get pregnant?

Crazy stuff. I’ll admit I never thought about taking pictures of my cervix- now I’m curious. Sure you can find out what the cervix looks like just by googling it. But I’ve never thought to look at my own. I could actually see how this could even be an interesting/helpful pregnancy tool. Obviously it would be more of a learning/information gathering experience the first time around. But getting to see the changes late in pregnancy and know if those Braxton Hicks are just that, or have changed to the real thing could be pretty cool. I might just have to ask my husband to bring me home a speculum.

Kristen

You know I’ve studied so much on human anatomy and a woman’s body, it’s so fascinating, but honestly I have never looked at a cervix or seen an actual picture. It looks nothing like I’ve imagined! No wonder that cervical check at 40 weeks pregnant hurt so much!

Katherine Martin

I didn’t think to use pictures to determine if you’re in labor. I could use that in the future, being 17 weeks pregnant.

On a side note, I just wanted to say: “Hi, Katherine Martin.”

Laurel

I’d seen the site about a year ago, and was fascinated. I was trying to figure out whether my IUD was supposed to do what it was doing. (It wasn’t, btw.) Anyway, great site.

katy

Huh… That was interesting. Didn’t know what a cervix looked like.

Habiba

Very very interesting. I guess we should all get to know ourselves a little more.

KarenA

This reminds me of my very first internal exam when I was at university – I got a super excited medical resident who (a) spouted the text book at me and (b) was not letting me get out of there without looking in the mirror to ‘see myself’. I was really not interested, I just wanted to get out of there.

Then, just to cap off the whole experience, I had the first retroverted uterus that she had ever encountered, so she ran off to find her supervisor to also come and examine me – leaving me up in stirrups with my bare crotch pointed towards an open door for 10 minutes. She’s probably a high paid specialist somewhere now, and probably still just as clueless!

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